Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
The pharmaceutical group Sanofi has announced a reorganisation plan to remove 670 jobs in France by the end of 2020, as part of a new global transformation plan. Job cuts must be made in three different entities: 70 in the Research and Development department; 30 at Sanofi-Pasteur and 570 at Sanofi Aventis Group. In addition to these 570 job cuts at Sanofi-Aventis, there are 80 transfers of IT jobs to a US subcontractor, Cognizant. If employees refuse to be transferred to this provider, the number of job cuts may be higher.
Voluntary departures would be carried out through a new mechanism put in place by the labour law reform of 2017: a procedure called 'collective conventional termination' (rupture conventionnelle collective). The workers' representatives firmly expressed their concern and disappointment about the appplication of this procedure.
In addition, the first French pharmaceutical laboratory wants to recruit 250 people, still in France, but for new positions in bioproducts or digital areas. The total job losses will then be reduced to 420 to 500 (taking into account transfer refusals).
Eurofound (2018), Sanofi, Internal restructuring in France, factsheet number 96043, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/96043.